Earlier this week, a Clayton County officer–who had only been on the force for four months–was shot twice in the head. He passed away last night. Our thoughts are with the Officer’s family and that community.

The field of candidates to replace President Adams at UGA has been narrowed to nine. The list is currently “secret,” but from the details released we can assume Mister Nine Herman Cain is not one of the nine.

This being open thread, I understand the following filibuster changes are being considered:

(1) Eliminate the ability to filibuster the motion to proceed;

(2) Require that those wishing to block legislation or nominations take the floor and actually filibuster— i.e., mandating “talking filibusters”;

(3) Assert that 41 Senators must affirmatively vote to continue debate rather than forcing 60 Senators to vote to end debate; and,

(4) Streamline the nomination process so that nominees will get a yes or no vote on the Senate floor, including a reduction of the required 30 hours of post cloture debate on a nominee to 2 hours.

I don’t know enough about Senate procedure to comment on (1). I like (2) because at least some of those that want debate to continue ought to be required to debate. I especially like (3) because it requires those that hold up legislation put themselves on record as doing so. As to (4), like (1), I don’t know enough to have much of an opinion.

I have concerns of the precedent set if filibuster rules changes of this magnitude are implemented by simple majority.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican, advocated a commission along the lines of the one that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Such a commission would need to examine the role of gun safety, mental illness, violent video games, school safety and other factors in this and other shootings, Isakson said.

All that takes time. If not already, schools in GA will be on Holiday break until after the first of the year. After September 11th, 2001 GA officials from various levels of State and Local government quickly coordinated efforts to take security steps and implement actions to prevent terrorists attacks in GA. Increased security measures were in-acted on September 11th. Legislation came later.

The same response by State and Local officials can be coordinated over school break in response to Newtown. What security measures can, or should, be in place when our children return to school after the Holidays?

There doesn’t need to be a commission to study squat. All the hand wringing about video games, gun safety, etc is a waste of time. Just as Frank Perdue of chicken fame used to say ‘parts is parts’, this incident has ‘facts is facts.’ A deranged crazy piece of s**t killed his momma and those kids. It has nothing to do with the instrument used in causing the deaths. It has nothing to do with video games. I remember back in the days when I was a kids folks were worried about Wily Coyote dropping anvils on the Road Runner, Batman and Robin kicking the crap out of the Penguin with all of the ‘Powwww”, ‘Bifffffffffffff’ and ‘Zonkkkkkkkkkkkkk’ letters appearing on the screen. Any kid with an ounce of sense knows not to mimic what he saw regarding the Road Runner as well as what he does in Doom-like video games.

Maybe the issue here is proper parenting, you know, actually spending time with little Chauncey as opposed to the parents being so damn self-absorbed with ‘hooking up’ and Facebook! Maybe a dad in the house might be a good thing, but I could be wrong.

But law abiding citizens should not have to have their rights infringed when the behavior of an obviously freaked-up person.

We had this same debate after those freaks at Colombine did what they did. Studies have been cited in the last several days of crime stats of Clinton’s semi-automatic gun ban of the 90’s and stats since it’s repeal. No difference.

Focus on treating mental illness and let’s try to take the stigma away from those who have it. Hormone level related conditions in the brain really do exist. Treat that but do not make those who follow the laws and live regular lives suffer restrictions in the freedoms they enjoy.

He’d have used another type of weapon, perhaps a revolver! a knife? a machete? It ain’t the weapon, Bob, it’s the crazy f**k who’s bound and determined to harm someone. And maybe, just maybe, I’d like to use my guaranteed rights to have a semi-automatic weapon to defend myself and family. Guns will never go away! Thankfully!

Also – Google “ammonia bomb”, “bleach bomb”, “ammonia bleach bomb” and the like. Are we going to have to outlaw common household cleaners and tin foil next? Instructions on how to make a variety of types of bombs are all over the Internet. People who want to cause destruction, will.

Some guy poisoned Tylenol in the early 80’s, another sent anthrax that killed postal workers. Some woman ran over her husband with her car when she found out he didn’t vote!! Examples of crazy folks harming and killing people are all over the place.

Just flipped over to WSB and heard Herman playing a Paul Harvey clip from 1965. It spoke of thinks that Paul Harvey would do to society id he were the Devil. Promoting porn, cautioning against patriotism, splitting up the family, most of the things we see happening today. I hope there is a link to it somewhere. I just heard snippets and would love to hear it completely. We, as a nation, are done.

This speech was broadcast by legendary ABC Radio commentator Paul Harvey on April 3, 1965:

If I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” “Do as you please.” To the young, I would whisper, “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is “square”. In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: “Our Father, which art in Washington” . . .

If I were the devil, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull an uninteresting. I’d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa. And then, if I were the devil, I’d get organized. I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine yound intellects but neglect to discipline emotions . . . let those run wild. I would designate an athiest to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say “she’s right.” With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress and then, in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science because that way men would become smart enough to create super weapons but not wise enough to control them.

If I were Satan, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas, a bottle. If I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And then, my police state would force everybody back to work. Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps. In other words, if I were Satan, I’d just keep on doing what he’s doing.

Noway, Huckabee said that if we hadn’t thrown god out of our classrooms then we would have avoided the Conn slaughter. You and the late Mr. Harvey are the only two people I’ve heard agree. Wildmon’s bunch might sign on. I think most other people believe a more likely reason is that we allow disturbed persons ready access to lethal tools.

Harvey’s statement might serve as a good sunday school text or radio commentary but it doesn’t provide any basis for policy decisions.

“The AJC notes that the Newtown tragedy may affect Georgia. In Houston County, civic-minded individuals are pushing for the local mall to lift a ban on “concealed weapons.” This, however, is response to the Oregon Mall incident of last week and, in part, response to a armed robbery at the Galleria Mall in Houston County.”

They would do well to look at what really happened in Oregon and listen to WE THE PEOPLE:

I’ll try again. My comment above had nothing to do with the debate that has begun over gun control or any other subject other than the question I asked,

“What security measures can, or should be in place when our children return to school after the Holidays?”

Here is an example:

“The school system has increased its police presence at all schools and local police departments are also sending patrols to schools,” the District told parents via its website. “Every day, school resource officers are at every middle school, and two are located at every North Fulton high school and three are at every South Fulton high school. All officers have elementary schools as part of their assignments. In addition, the school system has close working relationships with local law enforcement agencies so that in the event of an emergency, a response can be coordinated and quickly enacted.”

Is it time to assign full time school resource officers to elementary schools? Are your local school boards coordinating with law enforcement? Those are practical questions and more rural jurisdictions may not have the resources without State law enforcement assistance.

Columbine had an armed School Resource Officer very close to where the killers when they started. It didn’t help.

Virginia Tech had armed officers all over campus that day because of the dorm murders. It didn’t help.

What will help is to repeal the laws that criminalize self-defense. We need to allow background checked licensed citizens, teachers, and students to carry in schools and university. Doing so will discourage attacks and also enable an immediate and effective response to a gun man.

I suspect or in fact I know these people know what they are talking about. This interview was on this website( http://ntoa.org/site/ ) and Police review extensively every incident such as Columbine, VT, Clackamus Town Center (Oregon Mall) to determine what went wrong and train for it. So before you spout your gun rights, open your mind to better Police training. Who was ready for Pearl Harbor or 9/11 or Columbine or Newtown, You? I’ve mentioned nothing about your gun rights.

Sheer luck, or were authorities and mall officials well-prepared?

Probably a bit of both, say law enforcement and security experts, some of whom credit new police tactics and better security training at schools and public venues for helping to minimize the casualties at the Clackamas Town Center near Portland, Ore.

“I want to say that we were … well-prepared for this incident because we had practice in active shooter techniques at the Clackamas Town Center this past year for this type of situation,” Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said at a news conference Wednesday.training and response to an Active Shooter.

Also, David, cops are reactive, not proactive. They respond to crimes, they don’t prevent them. So, these well trained cops you speak of could have done nothing here unless they were psychic. Thanks for playing.

It’s called deterrence, David. And it is logical, too. Would you be more or less inclined to commit crimes of any kind, violent or otherwise, car jacking, burglary, robbery, knowing there is a pretty good chance folks around you might be armed and able to protect themselves and their property?

It’s logical to assume madmen like the one in Newtown, or Aurora, or Virginia Tech, or countless other mass murders , many of whose acts end in suicide, are to be deterred by the prospect of getting shot?

So, by your logic, because there may be madmen out there who might not be deterred by anything , we do not allow folks to carry weapons, ‘willie nillie’ for personal protection, and as a result, might deter non-insane people from committing crimes? I’ll take the common sense of the average man and willie and nillie every time.

You got that right, Harry. True personal story. A car came speeding down my parent’s driveway at 300am one night. They had a pretty large lot and the car began going around the backside of the house. Cop cars son come down the driveway, lights a blazing chasing these a$$holes. It had been raining and the cops got stuck. In the meantime my elderly father put on his robe, got his .38 and went outside to see what the hell was happening. Well, the bad guys’ car got stuck too. They were spinning trying to escape. Dad cocked the gun and told the guys to stop. They didn’t. He shot out their tires. They looked like a stomped on bullfrog, got out of the car leaving a trail of piss as they ran away. The cops finally got around to see what had happened. Dad asked them if he was going to have a problem with the fact that he had shot their tires. The deputy said ‘hell no…” The cops caught the guys in another part of the neighborhood. The cops got their men and my dad protected my mom and his house. ‘Nuff said!